Afterworlds

Summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld comes a smart, thought-provoking novel-within-a-novel that you won't be able to put down.

Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she's taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love.

Woven into Darcy's personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the "Afterworld" to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved—and terrifying—stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love...until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most.

Reviews

This had a lot of potential to be a really unique and profound story. It's told in alternating chapters: one of Darcy, the writer finding her way through the world of Young Adult literature in New York City as a teenage debut author; the other is of Lizzie, the main character in Darcy's urban fantasy book, who is the sole survivor of a terrorist attack at an airport and subsequently becomes a psychopomp and falls in love with the Hindu death good Yamaraj.

Unfortunately, it was boring af. Here's a list of problems:

- Darcy expects the world to be handed to her on a silver platter. She makes a lot of mistakes but never faces any consequences.

- Lizzie is the sole survivor of an American terrorist attack in an airport but 1) never experiences any PTSD or symptoms of trauma, 2) overcomes her trauma because she insta-loves Yamaraj in the first chapter when he kisses her even though he told her to forget about him and never come back, and 3) she's a freaking Mary Sue.

- The terrorist attack could have been a really profound part of the story, being post 9/11 but instead it was just the method of her meet cute with Yama. It could have shown the complexities of terrorism, fear mongering, and islamaphobia in America today, but it was just an excuse for Yamaraj to kiss her into another dimension.

- Darcy's story, well generally less stupid, is just plain boring. I'm not super into contemporary unless someone's dead or about to be, so I was out of my element.

- Given how cliché and illogical the book in the book is, why the actual f was it acclaimed in universe as being astounding, having "the juice" and worth thousands of dollars? It's post-Twilight trash. It's generic and soulless. Even Darcy knows (is that supposed to be meta or bad writing?)

- Lizzie lies to everyone all the time. She lies to her mother about experiencing PTSD. She lies to her best friend about Yamaraj and says instead that she's dating the FBI agent who's in charge of her security (at least she tells him about it). She lies to Yamaraj about exploring the Stranger Things Upside Down—I mean the flip side.

- Can Scott Westerfeld stop having teenagers say "[adjective]-making"?? No one talks like that!!!

- Darcy is Indian, which is unforgivably uncommon in today's YA literature, given that a significant part of the world's population is Indian. She's also queer, even though I don't like that her girlfriend is a lot older than her (that just makes me uncomfortable)

- Idr her name for some reason, but the little ghost girl who follows Lizzie around (my brain wants to say Mindy, but I'm not totally sure) is actually a pretty great character and added much needed depth to the story. She's paranoid that the man who kidnapped and killed her, burying her in her own backyard, is still out there and will find her when he dies. Like that's some intense stuff!!

- I liked the psychopomp stuff. I'm writing a psychopomp novel so it was cool for me

- I appreciated the guide through the world of authors, but it felt unrealistic tbh

Lol half of these have negative comments in them.

I might retry at some point to see if any of these are resolved by the ending, but honestly I kinda don't care.

Got an ARC of this from Edelweiss after missing out on a copy at BEA. And maybe it's because I'm a writer and I love reading about the writing process, or maybe it's the surreality of reading a book where the characters attend BEA, but I really enjoyed this. It's a massive departure from Westerfeld's usual style and genre, but once I realized how the structure works, and how the Lizzie parts do and don't relate with the Darcy parts, I found it quite fun. Recommended, with caveats.

I thought the book was okay. It seems a little too unrealistic and too easy for Darcy to automatically just be published like that. There were moments where I just wanted to slap Darcy for being so......Darcy. Something about her just bugs the crap out of me. I don't know what it is but I didn't like her. I enjoyed Lizzie's story much more than Darcy's.

I feel as though that this story could have been more developed character wise but it was an interesting premise.

This book was an entertaining read. It will especially appeal to those interested in cultural myths, life after death, and growing up. Darcy Patel is an appealing character, as is the protagonist of the novel she is writing, Lizzy Scofeld. The book purports to relate some of the challenges facing young writers as they navigate the demands of writing, publishing and editing in probably the hub of contemporary publishing, New York City. We grow with Darcy as she struggles to live on her own, manage on a "budget", and confront issues of her own sexuality. We grow with Lizzy as well as she learns what it means to be a survivor and to straddle two worlds - that of the living and that of the dead.I could recommend this book to young adults, library patrons who are interested in writing and the writing/publishing process. I would also recommend this to library patrons interested in the story within the story. Additionally, this book would appeal to to readers who enjoy books about the afterlife and beings who inhabit that world.

So, I definitely came into this with a completely wrong idea. I partially blame the naming of the main characters (Liz and Darcy - you can bet what I thought this would draw parallels to) and somehow, somewhy, I was under the impression that the two storylines were going to collide - Darcy would somehow meet Liz. I...dunno why I thought that.Anyway, as a non-fan of realistic fiction, Darcy's story was a total "leave it" on the "take it or leave it" scale. Liz's story however was compelling and I truly enjoyed it.

This is actually two books in one. The first is a fantasy about a girl who is caught in the middle of a terrorist attack in an airport and is spirited away until danger is past. This makes it possible for her to see ghosts and return to the spirit world. She learns that the ghost of a young girl has been living in her house because her mother couldn't forget her gruesome murder. The other book is from the viewpoint of the first book's author. 18-year old Darcy wrote a book (60,000 words in one month - shades of NaNoWriMo) which was picked up by a publisher who has her move to New York City to do her rewrites. She befriends other YA authors. She learns the difficulties of living on her own for the first time and also discovers that she loves a girl.What I particularly loved were the details of having a book published including things like speaking about her book and the thrill of other authors she loves writing blurbs for her book. I thought it was interesting how the love scenes in the fantasy were with a guy even though she discovers her preference is elsewhere. Since the author starts on her second book and is committed to write a trilogy, I fully expect there will be more to follow for us to read.

I was really intrigued by the premise of Afterworlds, a paranormal romance told between the pages of its 18-year-old debut author's coming of age story. There is much to like about each - Darcy adjusting to the life of an adult and Lizzie sinking into the mystical tow of the underworld. Darcy experiences love for the the first time in a relationship she's not sure her family will accept, and Lizzie has to wrestle with how to resume life after surviving a terrorist attack. I really liked both stories' secondary characters, and Westerfeld's style is impeccable.However, the super short chapters alternating between the stories left me feeling unsettled. The reading experience felt like watching a tennis match, bouncing back and forth without allowing the reader to have enough time in either world to invest emotion. I almost considered reading all of Lizzie's chapters and then going back to Darcy's so that my reading experience could feel more fluid. I didn't do that, however, because I thought I might miss out on a special connection between the two. In hindsight, I wish that I had.Nevertheless, I'm happy to recommend this book for readers who like paranormal and anyone interested in knowing what it's like to write for a living.

Carrying on two stories at once always requires a deftness in the author's abilities - both to write in a way that keeps the reader engaged in both stories, and to intertwine them in such a way that there are connections and reasons why both stories work together. "Afterworlds" manages to do both - telling both the "real" story of writing and rewriting a novel, and the novel itself. I listened to the audio version and very much enjoyed the narrators' handling of the different characters.

I have been a Westerfeld fan since I first read Uglies around 2007. I was shocked and completely excited when I found Afterworlds. I absolutely loved the alternating chapters between Darcy and her book, even though at quite a few times I was more interested in Lizzie. Overall I felt like it was a great exploration into the world of YA publishing, with a unique and worthwhile twist.

Alternating chapters, one point of view being of a recent high school graduate with a sweet publishing deal for her novel, the other being the actual chapters of her novel. The juxtaposition is interesting for the parallels and the reader's insight to the unfolding of the authors plot development. To me the fictitious novel and its post-death characters were a bit confusing, but it didn't have to necessarily make sense in order to be interesting.

Darcy Patel spent a month during her senior year furiously writing a complete YA novel. It's been picked up by a large book publisher and Darcy puts off college to edit the book as well as write and edit a sequel. She moves to New York City for a change of scenery, encountering other authors (both debut and seasoned) to help her survive in the city and the publishing industry. The first book she's writing is called Afterworlds and features Lizzie, a girl who can travel to the space between living and dead after being the sole survivor in a terrorist attack. Both girls fall in love, experience heartbreak. and have adventures they never expected to have.Afterworlds is two novels in one. One is in our world with Darcy Patel, debut young adult author struggling to finish her first book, and the other is in a fictional world with Lizzie, survivor and psychopomp (one who escorts the dead to the afterlife and yes it sounds weird). They are told in alternating chapters with no indication when it switches save for change of point of view. Each story is distinct and I never had a problem guessing which one I was in at any given point. Although the book is lengthy at over 600 pages, both stories kept momentum and my interest.I honestly expected Darcy's story to be insanely boring and hard to get through compared to the much more exciting other story that has ghosts, another world, and a cute and mysterious death god. Contemporary fiction isn't my favorite genre either. I was pleasantly surprised when her story was equally thrilling and entertaining to read. Her story has more things every day people can relate to: the detachment from her familial culture, the discovery of her sexuality, her first relationship, and the trials and tribulations of creating a book. I liked Darcy because of her journey. She started out as extremely naive and unsure of just about everything, but eager to embark on this new adventure. Along the way, she matured and learned to trust in those she loves and how to make more informed, responsible desicions. I loved her relationship with Imogen Gray. Westerfeld captures the feeling of first love well, the magic and also the insecurity. It's also nice to see an LGBT romance when so many teen books act like they don't exist at all.The story within a story was awesome and I couldn't get enough of it. The first chapter just hit me like a freight train and I couldn't put it down after that. Lizzie experienced a very traumatic event and on top of processing that, she has to figure out her new powers as a psychopomp. The character are less interesting than Darcy's story, but the concepts and themes are more complex. Ghosts survive on people's memories of them and they disappear when those people are gone. Their personalities and memories are also affected when someone dies who remembers a part of them that no one else remembers. It calls into question if ghosts are really people and never really resolves it. Lizzie has a whole slew of abilities including traveling on a river made of shreds of ghosts/memories, visiting buildings that are long gone, travelling through walls, and of course, talking to ghosts. The story had some seriously creeptastic moments, which I loved! This story also had the most problems. The death cult that orchestrated the terrorist attack is a big blank and isn't explored at all. The characters are less detailed. My biggest problem was when Lizzie commits a horrific crime and only feels remotely bad because her death god boyfriend doesn't want to spend time with her anymore. Darcy's narrative informs this book as the characters in that story discuss edits and decisions made about the plot, characters, etc, which is a cool added level. Both stories are compelling in their own way, but Darcy's story feels more complete and well written. I think everyone could find something they like whether it's paranormal romance, contemporary fiction, cool mythologies, insight into the publishing industry, dark angsty stories, or more realistic stories. Scott Westerfeld is one of my favorite authors and Afterworlds doesn't disappoint. I'm not sure if there will be a sequel, but I will be all over it if there is.

Darcy's first novel is about to be published. She moves to New York City, instead of going to college,to finish the book. Alternating between Darcy's actual life and the book she is writing, the book tells both stories.

I saw an ad for this book and it sounded good. So when I got the chance to get an early review copy I jumped at the chance. I liked the concept of the duel storylines. The author did a good job of keeping them separate but intertwining them as well into one huge book. Although I found Lizzie's story way more exciting than Darcy's. The storyline with Lizzie had more depth and the concept of her being a soul guide (yeah I did not like the word "psychopomp either) was cool. The alternate world or "afterworld" was another cool thing that I liked. It made the idea of the underworld not as scary. Darcy was fine but she was a tad boring. She was a wallflower. Luckily I still had a good time reading this book despite the slow moments with Darcy. Before I knew it I was already half way down with this book and then I was finished. Now that I have been introduced to Scott Westerfeld, I will be keeping an eye on what he comes out with next.

Two books in one! Darcy writes a book in a Nanowrimo style rush and miraculously gets a sweet publishing contract. Alternating with Darcy's experience as a debut YA author, replete with YA debut sisters and a mega-author reminiscent of John Green, is the story that Darcy wrote about Lizzie who experiences a horrific terrorist attack and then can travel between this life and another alternate reality where ghosts abound. A doorstop of a book, this one flies by in a rush of just-one-more-chapter.

AFTERWORLDS was a real chunkster. After beginning it, I understood why. This is the story of a young novelist selling her book, deferring college and moving to New York to work on the edits. It is also the book she is writing. Since I was reading the print edition of this book, I could easily tell if I was in Darcy's story or in Lizzie's because the novel Darcy was writing had black banded pages. Both stories have romance but they are very different romances. The novel Darcy is writing begins with a terrorist attack and then quickly becomes a paranormal complete with ghosts.I liked the chapters from Darcy's point of view because they talk so much about the writing process and the publishing process. We see Darcy working with her editor and revising her work. We see her laboring over her words and struggling to find an ending both she and her publishers can live with. We see her fear of ending of novel, She wants to keep improving it. We see Darcy meeting and interacting with both new and established YA writers. We also see what it is like for authors to go on book tours. I enjoyed the novel Darcy was writing too though it would have been too scary for me if it had been a standalone novel. Some of the scenes sent chills up my spine and had me checking to see if my doors were locked. This was a wonderful book for young adults interested in writing.

Afterworlds is a book told in two storylines -- the first, that of Darcy Patel, the author of the book Afterworlds, who writes the book in a month during high school and is very quickly picked up by a publisher. She puts college on hold, and moves to New York to write the rest of the series and get some serious exposure to the writing world; the other, that of her protagonist, Lizzie, who finds she can move between the world of the living and the world of the dead following a terrorist attack, and who just wants to make things work, protect her friends, and maybe have a little more to do with this mysterious boy she's met in the other world.

Unfortunately, I had to put this book down at around 40%, because both Darcy and Lizzie were just too shallow for me to deal with well, and that's fair, because I'm not the target audience. I was gritting my teeth during Darcy's portions of the book because it was just too... you know, handwavey. She's hanging out with tons of authors, and it's all so easy... I ended up looking forward to Lizzie's parts of the book, but even then, there were times I just wanted to yell, "Dude, really? Don't be a dumbass." After too many of those, I realized I just wasn't enjoying myself and moved on. Again, I am not the target audience -- a mid-teen range would be very much at home in this book.

Related: I am very, very glad to see young adult starting to look at nontraditional relationships and sexual orientations. Kudos, Mr. Westerfeld.

Darcy Patel postpones college so she can move to New York and focus on the rewrites of her first novel and start on the sequel. Alternating with Darcy's chapters are the chapters of the book she wrote. Consummate YA readers and young aspiring writers will eat up this truly insider look at "YA heaven." For me, I found Darcy's story more compelling than her "book." But then she wouldn't be that polished a writer, yes? ; )

Two stories told in alternate chapters. One story, the story of the young debut author moving to NYC and coming of age there. The other story, the story she wrote, her first book. What I enjoyed most in this novel was the insider view of the YA publishing industry that Westfeld shares. Second was the unusal fantasy story--a young woman is involved in a terrorist attack. Instead of dying in the shootout, she goes to the Afterworld, a place between this world and the underworld.

There are two whole novels here, and I enjoyed both of them enormously.

One is a paranormal fantasy about a California girl who dies and meets the Indian god of death, and thereafter can see and talk to ghosts. It reminds me quite a bit of Meg Cabot's Mediator novels, which I also enjoyed enormously. This novel is ostensibly the work of a high school senior during NaNoWriMo.

The other book is a realistic contemporary about a high school senior who managed to score a contract and a whopping advance for the paranormal fantasy she wrote during NaNoWriMo, and how she uses that money to move to Manhattan, befriend real, professional writers in the city, and learn how to rewrite her novel into something good, and also find love and independence while maintaining a relationship with her family and high school friends. This one feels like a modern comedy of manners.

Both stories are grounded in a plausible reality while also incorporating some whimsy. Westerfeld has been a popular writer of YA series for a while now, and is married to a writer I likewise enjoy enormously (Justine Larbalestier!), so there isn't a lot of angsting about The Great American Novel but there is great insight into both the process of editing a book, and about all the other business related to publishing. As a former flap monkey, the book tour killed me.

Reading this book, and thinking about it just after, I realized that my own reviews and those of most reviewers I follow, tend to focus on plot and characters and themes and motifs, not unlike the discussion in many English Lit courses. What I don't often address is how reading a book makes me feel. Reading Afterworlds is pretty much a full emotional banquet: there is pain and sadness and romance and humor, and, AND there's even an examination of how stories can be appealing while being problematic, with Darcy having an opportunity to hear those criticisms and learn from them, and revise her novel in more positive ways. All of us are steeped in a culture of assimilation and stereotype and prejudice, and all of us are creating problems for our fellow beings all the time just being thoughtless. Westerfeld is showing us, in a kind and not at all off-putting or sermonizing sort of way, how we can improve ourselves if we listen to the critical feedback. So, not only is it a book that makes you feel all kinds of things while you're reading it, it isn't a guilty pleasure at all.

And I kind of hate that we're still at this place, but I would like to give Westerfeld some cookies for showing a New York that isn't all white male anglo-saxon protestant hetero. This is a New York I recognize full of all kinds of people.

I received an ARC through Goodreads---I loved this book! It was so intense at times that I eagerly gobbled it up. Similar to the Uglies series, Scott Westerfeld has a way of drawing you into the world of his novels and not letting you go until you have read from start to finish...in almost one sitting.

The narration of the book alternates between Darcy Patel (the author of the series Afterworlds) and Elizabeth Scottsfield (the protagonist of Afterworlds). It actually transitioned much smoother than I had thought, because when I first started reading this book I was a bit skeptical at the alternative narrative.

I loved the opening scene and entire Afterworlds setting. It's definitely different and interesting to see how a YA novel deals with romance between a Hindu death god and an American teenager. The characters were all very interesting and multidimensional. Nothing is predictable in any sense! I like being kept on my toes. It's impressive how quick Lizzie took to being a "guide/reaper/psychopomp", at least in the sense of developing her powers and being able to travel around in Afterworlds. What Lizzie did killing the horrible man that killed Mindy and 5 other little girls certainly was understandable but with every action comes consequences. I totally wanted Yama and Lizzie to end up together regardless of everything, but that would be too simple and predictable. I would have liked a little more conflict and action in Afterworlds but it's hard to top that terrorism scene! This is one YA story that I can stand behind, even somewhat reluctantly seeing how I have finished the book now!

Darcy's side of the narrative. It was fascinating to see how things work in the YA publishing and writing world. Nothing is as simple as getting signed! All the edits, rewrites, pleasing the publishers and the publicity to promote the book. Whew! So much work goes into publishing a book! This was a small glimpse into that world and I have to say I have a new found appreciation for publishers and writers. Yes, Darcy certainly got lucky right off the bat and got a wonderful deal from Paradox Publishers to publish her novel and all before the age of 18! Darcy's character developed to another level since the novel first started. Where she first started as an innocent, impressionable and slightly naive teenager to a slightly wiser, mature and more composed writer over the span of a year.

I like that there wasn't a happily ever after. After all, it's so overrated and cliched. We got an ending that was more than satisfactory and works great with both stories. Part of me wants a sequel for Afterworlds but part of me is satisfied how everything worked out.

i liked the stories. i actually liked the novel more than i did the story about the YA girl who wrote the novel. it was so good i almost used Afterworlds as the book for my March challenge to read a debut author. :-)

At the beginning I thought it would be annoying because every other chapter switches between Darcy – the teenager author, and Lizzie – the protagonist that Darcy is writing about. I’m not normally a fan of this, as I tend to lose track of who’s doing what, but this style MADE this book.

As Lizzie’s story unfolded, I found myself rushing through to see what was going to happen next. Even though Darcy’s story is interesting in itself, hers was like a build up to Lizzie’s. I didn’t mind listening to Darcy drone on about her swanky hotel or writer girlfriend because I knew that I got to listen to Lizzie after.

And, pretty proud of myself here (and kudos to Mr. Westerfeld), I managed not to mess up ANY of the characters in either world. I usually find myself flipping back and forth to remind myself who is who when books are written from two different view points, but it was not so! The only character I had an issue with was Yamaraj. I didn’t get a good sense of who he was supposed to be. He just seemed to appear when Lizzie needed him.

Even though it’s a pretty big book, it was a quick read and I definitely enjoyed it.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: This intriguing blend of paranormal and romance was an enjoyable novel!Opening Sentence: The most important email that Darcy Patel ever wrote was three paragraphs long.The Review:Darcy is eighteen when she finishes her first book, Afterworlds, typing the first draft in under a month. She ships it off to a high-end publishing company, and sure enough, they take on the book for a high sum of 300,000 dollars for her novel and its unwritten sequel. We get to see her struggles in the publishing world as well as her character’s struggles in a paranormal world, as she speaks to ghosts, makes enemies, and falls in love. Lizzie’s story is more gritty, but Darcy’s story adds the realistic tinge to the novel as a whole, making Afterworlds an enjoyable book.Before starting Afterworlds, I’d never read anything of Scott Westerfield’s. I own his Uglies series and know how popular it is, so that gave me high expectations. Mostly, Afterworlds fulfilled those expectations. I loved the unique idea of having an author getting her book published as well as spicing it up with the book that she’s publishing! One problem I had with Afterworlds was that both storylines — Darcy’s, and Lizzie’s — has insta-love, Lizzie more than Darcy. Lizzie and Yamaraj literally kissed the first time they met; okay, it was on the forehead, but still. Their relationship progressed far too fast for my liking. I thought Lizzie and Imogen’s romance was more realistic, and thought it was wonderful how the author portrayed same-sex love as natural as he did straight love. This book does deal with sensitive subjects such as that, as well as murder, sex . . . So be aware.Lizzie’s story was an interesting read, and original. However, if Darcy’s chapters hadn’t been incorporated into this novel, I can’t see myself enjoying only her point of view. (Oh, and it was cool how the point of views changed! Darcy’s in third person, Lizzie’s in first.) It wasn’t boring, but the insta-love, the whole idea of ghosts, and the choices that Lizzie makes I don’t agree with, they all added up to a book that wouldn’t be my cup of tea alone. Lizzie was a good enough main character, if not a little flawed, and misguided. One of my favorite characters was Mindy, her mother’s friend who was murdered when she was younger. She is a ghost now that hangs around Anna’s closet and befriends Lizzie when she starts seeing the afterworld. Her cute girly personality gave a touch of happiness to a dark book.Darcy’s novel was what made this read worthwhile to me. Having never been to New York, I have absolutely no idea if this is how the publishing process works. All the same, I found it enjoyable to see Scott Westerfield’s play on publishing. I loved how Darcy nitpicked away at her novel with the worry and care of an overprotective mother. I loved how she approached the issue of Yamaraj and how she essentially deleted Hinduism from her world. I enjoyed how she edited and we got to see the changes she made as she talked about them, which was nice. Altogether it was lots of fun reading about Darcy’s adventures with blurbs, writers block, and her romance with Imogen.This book was an interesting mix of contemporary and paranormal romance that I thought was fun. Though I’ve seen complaints from other reviewers, I found the book enjoyable. It’s six hundred pages but I flew through them within a few days, so that wasn’t a problem. And if it had been any less than six hundred, well, we’re dealing with two plotlines here. One or both of them wouldn’t have been developed to their fullest potential! I know that Darcy was writing the sequel to Afterworlds in the last chapters and wonder if this means that the book will get another installment. I wouldn’t mind if it did, though I think it ended pretty solidly. It was cool how Paradox publishing house was described and created, and the different character’s personalities and how they tangled. I never really got messed up by the alternating chapters because the point of views and different characters kept them separate in my mind. Altogether, an enjoyable book that I’d recommend to others.Notable Scene:“Want a cracker?” Nisha said from the doorway.“Let’s try to avoid cliches.” Darcy held the bird’s stare. “Do you talk??”“Birds don’t talk,” said the parrot.Nisha shook her head. “That’s fucked up.”“Don’t teach my agent’s parrot to swear.”FTC Advisory: Simon & Schuster provided me with a copy of Afterworlds. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

I got an eGalley of this book to review through Edelweiss. I have been a fan of Westerfeld’s books for quite a while. I enjoyed his Uglies series (both the full length books and the graphic novels), and adored his Leviathan series. I have yet to read his Midnighters series but it’s sitting on my shelf waiting for me to do so. I was very excited to see what he would write about next. Afterworlds was an interesting but ultimately somewhat disappointing read.This book follows two storylines that alternate back and forth (something I have been seeing more and more in YA novels lately). The first storyline is the story of Darcy Patel, a seventeen year old girl who gets a novel called Afterworlds published in a dream deal. Darcy gets a huge advance for a two novel deal and ends up living in New York City, working and hobnobbing with other YA authors. The alternating storyline is actually Patel’s novel Afterworlds. This storyline follows a girl named Lizzie who survives a vicious terrorist attack, but in doing so she is drawn into a world between our world and death where she meets a boy who seems to be some sort of death god. Lizzie works on learning how to use her new ability to enter this between space to see ghosts (it reminded me of the Grey from Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series) and decides to try to solve a mystery surrounding the murder of a number of young girls.Darcy’s story was pretty good. I enjoyed watching her struggle in New York and navigate the publishing world from the author side of things. This was an excellent coming of age story that was engaging and interesting. My only complaint is that Darcy gets this huge writing advance for Afterworlds, and Afterworlds (Darcy’s book) honestly kind of sucks. Much of the book is Darcy going through edits for Afterworlds and this was actually pretty interesting.My huge problem with this book was Darcy’s story Afterworlds. It really isn’t that good. It starts out with this awesomely intense terrorist attack and then goes downhill from there. I really really think there was no way Darcy would have gotten a huge advance for this type of story. Lizzie’s story (Darcy’s Afterworlds book) has some interesting concepts in it but isn’t very well fleshed out. It honestly ends up being pretty boring. As the book continued I started dreading reading Lizzie’s story and Darcy’s story was much more engaging. The question of whether or not Darcy was going to finish her book on time was way more compelling than Lizzie solving the murder of all these little girls.Sooo...I think the main problem here is that this is two books woven into one and it just doesn’t work well. Lizzie’s story ends up suffering in the end and Darcy’s story ends up suffering in the beginning. Maybe that is the point...that somewhere along the way real life becomes more engaging than fiction. However, even if that is the point it makes for an inconsistent read throughout. I ended up not liking the story all that much and it really went slow. This was a long book and it really really felt like it.Overall an interesting idea that didn’t work out all that well. Lizzie’s story starts out as very engaging but then kind of fizzles as it goes on, getting drawn out and boring. Darcy’s story starts a bit slow and then builds momentum. In the end I felt like I was getting jerked back and forth between the two stories and I had trouble engaging with the characters. The whole thing was okay, but fell a bit flat for me. Not the best Westerfeld book out there.

Since hearing of its impending release all the way back in April at PTALive, I have been eagerly awaiting Scott Westerfeld’s Afterworlds. Afterworlds is not just one story, but two – the story of Darcy Patel, a high school graduate who just sold the novel she wrote during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for those not in the know) told alongside the story she wrote, titled Afterworlds. This is an impressive work. Merging a contemporary novel about a young author finding herself in New York City and a paranormal romance about a girl who enters the ‘afterworld’ during a near-death experience, this may not appeal to everyone. But as a genre-hopper, I loved it. There’s always the problem with alternating chapters that you feel like you haven’t got enough of the story you’re reading, the one you prefer, but my preferred story changed with every chapter. I was invested in Darcy’s story and then wrapped up in Lizzie’s – I didn’t know which one I wanted to read more.The two stories complement each other rather than clashing – I feel like one couldn’t have been told without the other. Reading Lizzie’s story, we can relate to everything Darcy says about her novel, as she deliberates about her inclusion of a Hindu death-god borrowed from her own religion which she has mostly ignored, her ending, her worry that her mother will find parallels in the novel with a real life event. Reading the story of one girl is reading the story of the other.Darcy’s storyline introduces us to the world of YA publishing in New York and it is dripping with satire. It is fantastic, watching a successful YA author take apart his own world. The world for authors is not all ‘YA heaven’ and Darcy soon realises she has a lot of growing up to do – including shopping for mops! For the first time in her life, Darcy is managing her own money, living by herself, having to provide for herself and work, because writing a novel is so much more than the first draft. Her novel, Lizzie’s storyline, is full of YA tropes and the typical love interest for the purpose of “YA hotness” as well as the damsel in distress being saved by the hero and of course the more or less insta-love, despite the insistence that “this one is different”. I loved the dialogue. It was so realistic. For once I wasn’t thinking, ‘teenagers don’t really speak like that’. How common in teenager language is ‘what the actual f*ck’ and how often do we read it? Hardly ever! I also loved, in Darcy’s storyline, the talk of TBRs and ARCs and talking about world building and all that other writer stuff. She goes to Book Expo America (somewhere I am dying to go)! It was all integrated so smoothly, as was the fact that Darcy didn’t even know what she considered her sexuality to be until she meets Imogen and also her struggle with her right to use Hindu-ism in her books. It all flowed so well. Even when I wanted to bang my head against the table because I could see her throwing away money in her somewhat ridiculous apartment and she was possessive and jealous, I still felt it was brilliantly constructed narrative. And Darcy is not a character I would usually have time for, mainly because I couldn’t stand the way she spoke to Imogen. But she was real. And it was all done just so well, so brilliant, damn you Scott Westerfeld, I loved this book.